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The adult cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) is a ubiquitous, enterprising and persevering insect. The cat flea is the most dominant, competitive and most common flea associated with domesticated animals today.

Corticosteroids are among the most used and misused medications in veterinary medicine. They exert a powerful, reliable, and rapid effect, and there is no viable, more effective therapeutic alternative in animals with certain skin conditions. Topical and oral corticosteroid therapies are considered the first choice for treatment of acute and chronic inflammatory skin diseases, particularly allergic dermatitis. In addition, they aid in the inflammation associated with some types of infections, primarily Malassezia dermatitis and otitis.

Otitis externa is an inflammatory condition with or without concurrent infection and is the most common dermatological disease in a busy veterinary practice. Thus it is the most common claim forwarded to veterinary insurance companies. For the most part, the majority of cases are simple, and treatment clears the disease in a few days.

In my multi-specialty, referral-based veterinary hospital in the heart of San Francisco, with all our many bells and whistles, including access to numerous specialists within our clinic (internal medicine, surgeon, radiologist, dentistry, holistic, oncologist, acupuncturist and ophthalmologist), I still continue to feel very frustrated with a common skin disease: canine pyoderma.